


It Takes A Village

by dralexreid



Series: Dr Piper Bishop [68]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Gen, Injury, Whump, slightly nsfw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-13 13:54:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 14,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29029743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dralexreid/pseuds/dralexreid
Summary: Piper's protective detail gets wiped out and it's a race against time to save Declan.
Relationships: Dr Spencer Reid/Dr Piper Bishop
Series: Dr Piper Bishop [68]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1972852
Comments: 6
Kudos: 21





	1. Chapter 1

7 months. 30 weeks. 212 days. 5110 hours. That was how much time had passed since Emily had died. That was how much time had passed since Piper had last seen her team. That was how much time had passed since she had hugged Penelope, kissed Spencer, high-fived Derek, embraced JJ, bumped fists with Dave, shared a smile with Aaron and said goodbye to Emily. She had missed Jack’s first soccer victory, Spencer’s second anniversary, terrible movies with Penelope, baseball games with Derek, cooking with Dave, babysitting Henry. It was also how long she had kept Declan and Louise safe, how long she had gone without kicking into emergency protocols.

They’d been on high alert for the past couple of weeks, with Luke and Lillian having spotted Ian lingering around the boarding school. They’d had extra weapons and equipment snuck into the house under the guise of pest control, courtesy of Tom Koehler. Every night for the past few weeks, Lincoln and Laurel Rook had alternated guards. Lillian hadn’t slept in days and Louise was on edge. So was Declan. That was why Laurel wasn’t particularly surprised when Lincoln came downstairs with Declan. “Again?” Lincoln just nodded as Declan suppressed a yawn. Laurel stood up before kneeling in front of Declan. He took it as an invitation to clamber around her shoulders while Lincoln took up the post for the third time that week, his FBI letters clearly printed on his vest, barely tossing a glance behind him at Laurel taking their surrogate son upstairs.

“Will you tell me a story?” Declan asked in his sweetly sleepy voice.

“Course. What kind of story?”

“Tell me about Jason,” he demanded before Laurel tossed him onto the bed.

“Okay. A long, long, long, long, long time ago, there was a boy named Jason. Now, Jason was the son of a king. One day, in a fit of jealousy, when Jason was still young, his uncle killed Jason’s father.”

“Because he wanted to be king,” Declan said brightly.

“Exactly. So, Jason’s mom sends him far, far away so that Jason’s uncle won’t kill him either. She sends him to a centaur named Chiron.”

“He’s the same guy that taught Hercules, right?”

“Chiron was the teacher of all heroes. Achilles, Hercules, and now, Jason too. So, Chiron raises Jason to be a hero and when Jason grows up, he goes to reclaim his throne.”

“Because he’s the rightful prince,” Declan said, his attention enraptured by the story.

“No, Deck, because he’s the rightful king. But his uncle won’t give up the throne so easily. So, his uncle sets him a challenge to find a golden fleece which was kept in Colchis. Jason agrees and he creates a team of heroes and they build themselves a ship called the Argo and eventually, the team reaches a place that wasn’t on any of their maps called the Black Sea. Now, the ancient Greeks believed that clashing rocks guarded the straits and that the rocks would close together and smash any ship sailing through. But Jason had been told by a blind prophet how to fool the rocks. Jason sent a bird ahead of him. The rocks would crash in on it and then reopen, at which point he could successfully sail through.”

“What happened to the bird?” Declan asked, his eyes sorrowful and half-lidded. Piper reached a hand to touch his leg.

“The bird died, darling. But Jason and his crew made it through. When Jason finally arrives in Colchis, he asks King Aietes to return the Golden Fleece to him as it belonged to his ancestor. Reluctant, the king suggests yet another series of challenges to Jason.”

“Seriously?” Declan said, yawning as he lay down.

“He had to yoke fire-breathing bulls, plough and sow a field with dragons' teeth and then overcome the warriors who would rise from the furrows. Aietes was confident the tasks are impossible but unbeknownst to the king, his daughter Medea has taken a liking to Jason. She offers to assist Jason if he will marry her. He agrees and Medea uses her magic to help Jason succeed.”

“That’s not very fair,” Declan managed.

“No, it wasn’t,” Piper smiled as his eyes slowly started to close.

“What happened next?” Declan said, his eyes already closed, and Piper lowered her voice to match his sleepy whisper.

“Jason takes the fleece and Medea and goes back to his home with his crew. Jason gives his uncle the fleece and reclaims his throne before marrying Medea. And they live happily ever after.” Piper watched Declan until she was confident that he fell asleep. She rose from her kneel, about to switch posts with Lincoln again when the smallest voice pulled her back. “Don’t go, Mom,” he breathed and Piper’s heart broke as she listened, staying by his side, even as her eyes flickered closed.

She didn’t get the phone call until two weeks after that night. Tom and Lillian had tracked Ian Doyle down to an address, conveniently passing an encrypted tip down to the Behavioural Analysis Unit. With Project: Blue Dahlia being a covert operation with the details all classified, it would have been impossible to tip them off any other way. It was meant to be a typical assault on the address and Piper was on edge the whole day, dropping mugs and her attention fading in and out of conversations. Especially when Louise was called in by the headmaster to pick up her son. _Everything is fine. Luke’s at the school. Lillian’s keeping a watch on surveillance cams. Lincoln’s with Louise to pick him up. Everything is fine._ Except everything wasn’t fine. Nothing was fine. The headmaster had sent all the kids home from food poisoning. Luke was in the hospital after collapsing in his office. Tom was unresponsive after having called him multiple times. So, that evening, the last three remaining agents kicked into emergency protocol. Lillian was locking everything before setting up on the kitchen island, a careful watch on the door. Laurel was in the master bedroom, the last line of defence while Lincoln was a decoy in Declan’s room. Louise and Declan were locked inside the bathroom with the nanny taking care of the occasional retching. They stayed in their positions for hours, windows closed, curtains down, never knowing when the sun went down and when darkness settled.


	2. Chapter 2

Penelope’s tip had actually been a link to an encrypted outside an undisclosed address. She’d almost lost hope in hunting down Doyle, so the image of Ian in a tan car going down a street filled her with hope. All she had to do was track the car which tracked the hole in the wall that Ian was hidden in. After that, Derek called the remnants of the Behavioural Analysis Unit into action. Aaron had been reassigned to temporary duty in Pakistan. Ashley had transferred to the Human Trafficking Unit. Piper was still working in San Francisco in the Victim Specialists Unit. The only gain they’d made was JJ returning full time as a profiler from the state department. So, Penelope remained, tracking Ian’s behaviour for the past 2 months while Derek updated Hotch and deployed a back-up unit supporting JJ and him as they stalked Ian Doyle’s apartment.

Meanwhile, Penelope sent Dave and Spencer to an address in Stafford County, Virginia, one Ian had been stalking for months. Under the cover of darkness, Spencer and Dave pushed through the open front door to a dark, seemingly empty house. Dave signalled for Spencer to take upstairs while Dave cleared the bottom floor, his torch sweeping over cracks in the wall before falling on a body tucked next to the fridge, dried blood staining the young woman’s forehead, gold glinting under the light of his torch, her vest visible under her jacket, white letters glittering on her chest. ‘FBI’.

Spencer’s torch flashed around the hallway and he pushed through one door, revealing a young man lying on the floor, a bullet in his head too. But this was a kid’s room, Spencer noted, confused as he pushed through the guest room next door. Empty. A bathroom next. Empty. He hoped this last door didn’t reveal anything behind it as he pushed it ajar, only to see a figure hunched over next to an older woman. “FBI!” Spencer called out, David running up the stairs behind to flank him. The figure glanced up, her eyes hollow, hair shorter than it used to be. Tears mingled with blood glittered under his torchlight, duct tape stuck over her mouth. Spencer barely recognised her, and his brain couldn’t reconcile the two facts as he stood frozen next to Dave in shock until Piper gave out a muffled cry. Dave sidled past Spencer over to Piper’s frame, slipping two fingers into her combat boots and plucking out her knives to slice through the tape sticking her feet and arms together.

“This is going to hurt,” Dave warned before ripping off the duct tape. Piper yelled in pain. “Sorry,” Dave mumbled, pressing the young woman into a hug that she slowly returned, her glittering eyes still stuck on Louise on the floor next to her.

“The others,” Piper croaked. “They’re dead, aren’t they?”

“I’m sorry, kid,” Dave said gently, expecting her to cry into his shoulder. Instead, she got up, barely giving either of them a second look as she whipped around the corner. Spencer gave Dave a single look and the man nodded, releasing Spencer to follow her while Dave called to update Penelope. Spencer rushed out the door and into the hallway, seeing Piper’s frame sagged against the wall, her eyes falling on the young man dead inside. Gingerly, she stepped inside the room, flicking the switch on to confirm what had happened to Lincoln. By the time Spencer stepped into the room, Piper was kneeling next to Lincoln’s body, gripping his hand and his gaze fell on Piper’s ring finger glittering gold.

“I don’t understand,” Spencer said softly, three words he didn’t like to say very much. “You were meant to be—”

“Where’s Doyle?” Piper interrupted him, glancing over her shoulder. “There was supposed to be an arrest tonight, so where the fuck is Doyle?”

“Derek and JJ are on his tail,” Spencer said gently. “Pipes, what’s happening here?” She was meant to be in San Francisco.

“Declan’s alive,” Piper said softly. “I’m part of his protective detail.”


	3. Chapter 3

Derek and JJ were seated comfortably in their SUV in uncomfortable silence as they kept their gaze fixed on the surveillance of Doyle’s apartment until a Metro PD squad car drove past them, sirens echoing as they tailed the car and while JJ instinctually looked up, Derek looked down, catching Doyle’s almost imperceptible movement behind the curtains. Almost. JJ tore out of the car after him and together, both federal agents stormed the building, then the apartment until Derek practically tore Ian’s closet open, his eyes lifting up to the vent going up to the roof. Derek yelled at JJ to take the back stairs as he took the stairs up two at a time, finally reaching an empty roof. He glanced around before feeling something heavy fall on top of him. Derek rolled over, pushing the lump onto the floor and tucking two right hooks into Doyle’s jaw, his gun a few feet away. Derek crawled over to the gun and Ian took advantage of it by running. As Derek got up, JJ’s voice murmured something into his earwig.

“I have the shot,” the sniper updated, and Derek started yelling.

“Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot, I’ve got him.” Derek ran after the salt-and-pepper haired man holding up his gun until Doyle stopped at the edge of the roof.

“Are you going to kill me, Agent Morgan?”

\--

Piper was seated in her usual seat in the conference room, a finger tapping on the coffee in front of her as she stared at the seat next to her, the one Emily always took, Louise’s screams echoing in her ears, Declan’s yells ricocheting against her brain. She was frozen until Derek entered the room. “You got him?” Piper asked. He nodded curtly and Piper shot up, ready to scratch the man’s eyeballs out.

“Hold up. How did you know Declan was alive?” Piper ran her tongue over her bottom lip, falling back into her seat. They were all waiting for an answer. Dave was seated on the desk, watching her with concern while Spencer stood leaning on the coffee counter, his arms crossed. JJ took a seat, ready to hear the whole story while Derek watched her, standing between her and the door.

“Emily told me, sort of. Before she died, she told me that the blue dahlia was blooming in Reston, Virginia, where she used to live. She told me to contact an old colleague of hers. Tom Koehler,” Piper confessed.

“Who’s that?” Penelope asked, trailing in after Derek.

“He was an old friend of hers, a mutual friend of Clyde Easter and Corelli.”

“The forger,” Derek recalled. “But Garcia and I went through all of his things, there was no sign of Declan or Louise.”

“Clyde did that,” Piper said softly. “With his position in Interpol, he requested that certain documents be repatriated to the UK, which included Louise and Declan’s new identities. Tom created the protective detail after I told him that Doyle knew about his son still being alive. We knew it was only a matter of time before Ian would find Declan.”

“So, Tom put you on the detail,” Spencer supplied.

“Exactly,” Piper said. “The detail had a total of four agents apart from Tom and I. Lillian Rudolph is—” Piper winced. “—was our surveillance operations officer. Lincoln Rook was our intelligence analyst. Luke Rogers was our special operations officer. Tom was our handler.”

“L.R,” Spencer said softly. “What was your cover?”

“Laurel Rook,” Piper managed to get out, feeling a warm hand cup her shoulder. “Declan wasn’t supposed to be back home that early. He’d been sent home for food poisoning and the last communication we had from Tom was that Luke was in the hospital. After that, he went silent. I started the emergency protocols.”

“Piper, we have to do a cognitive interview,” Dave said gently.

“Why?” Derek asked. “We know who did it. He’s in our custody.”

“No, he didn’t,” Piper murmured. “I would’ve recognised him, and he hasn’t been anywhere near the house since Lillian sent Garcia the tip.”

“Wait, that was you too?” Penelope managed to ask.

“Look, I’ll do the interview. If Spencer does it,” Piper insisted, and Derek was about to argue until Dave sent him a severe look. Complying, they left the conference room for the couple, filtering out to observe Doyle. She waited until Dave closed the door before she started. “Spencer, I’m so sorry.”

“You lied. To me. To the team. Piper, is there anyone you haven’t lied to?”

“Don’t you think I wanted to tell you?” Piper said, pouring every sincerity into the question. “A boy’s life was at stake. So, I lied.”

“I can’t believe I fell for it,” Spencer murmured, pushing off the desk to take a seat in front of her. “It makes sense, actually. When you asked me when coffee beans were invented. Why you were always tired when I called. Why you couldn’t meet me when I was in San Diego. If we hadn’t found Doyle, you would’ve stayed there, wouldn’t you?”

“I had to protect Declan. I owed her that much. Emily gave her life to protect that kid.”

“So, you sacrificed yours?” Spencer retorted.

“Yeah. And I wish I didn’t have to lie, Spence. I was just trying to protect that kid.” Spencer shifted in his seat, his amber gaze holding anger and pain and hurt but underneath all of it, Piper caught the briefest glimpse of her old Spence.

“I missed you,” he whispered, wiping at the cut on Piper’s cheek and she closed her eyes, finally feeling at home.

“I missed you too,” Piper offered, placing a hand on his.

“Let’s find this kid.”


	4. Chapter 4

Derek let the metal door close behind him as his gaze fell on Ian in front of him, seated behind a metal desk, handcuffed to his chair which was bolted down to the floor. “Forgotten where I've been, Agent?” Ian taunted. “Places far worse than this.”

“Doyle, where's Declan?” Derek asked straightforwardly.

“Don't play dumb. Your friend found him months before I did. He's living in that lovely little house our friend set up for him. I should have found him sooner. Finally remembered she likes cul-de-sacs,” Ian said, sniggering slightly.

“Where is Declan right now?” Derek repeated to a dumb-faced Doyle. “You expect me to believe you had nothing to do with his abduction?”

“And you expect me to believe this isn't part of the strategy? You tell me my son is missing when I know he was safe a few hours ago? You'll have to get more creative.”

“Listen to me, you son of a bitch,” Derek spat, taking a seat in front of him violently. “I am not playing games with you. If you care about anybody other than yourself, you'll give me a list of who would have done this.”

“Why would anyone take Declan?”

“You tell me.”

“No one even knows he exists.”

“Someone does,” Derek countered. “Because when we followed you to that little rat trap, somebody took him from his house. Somebody else was watching you, Doyle. Now tell me who.”

“I don't know. I don't.”

“Your son is missing. So, think.”

“I don't know,” Ian repeated. Derek slammed a file down on the desk. “This man, he was your son’s guidance counsellor,” Derek stated, showing him a before and after picture of Luke Rogers. “He died in the hospital 10 minutes ago because of a bad cupcake. That man has a son and a partner that I have no idea how to contact.” He pulled out another 2 photos. “That’s Lillian Rudolph. She has a kid waiting for her at home.” Derek pulled out the blonde sandy-haired man’s photos. “That’s Lincoln Rook. He was meant to get married in 3 months. His wife is out there somewhere planning a wedding that he’ll never get to attend. Three of my agents who were protecting your son are dead. That doesn’t matter to you? Fine,” he spat, sweeping the photos off the table and onto the ground, replacing it with a single photo of a bruised and battered woman. “That’s your son’s nanny. Louise Thatcher. Except that’s not her name anymore. Now, it’s Louise Jones and Louise Jones was brutally murdered by someone who has a vendetta against you.” Ian glanced at the single photo occupying the desk. A photo of Louise on the floor, bleeding from every cavity on her face. “Now, I know for a fact that you wouldn’t do this to the woman who protected your son for so long so I’m going to ask you once, very nicely. Who hates you enough to take your son and do this—” Derek pushed the photo further into his view, “—to his caregiver?”

“How long has it been?” Ian asked him.

“6 hours,” Derek said bitterly.

“You’ve had your time to find him. Now let me have mine.” Derek snorted.

“That’s not going to happen.”

* * *

Piper sat silently behind Penelope as she worked on a list of Doyle’s enemies, listening to her ramble about the team intently. “Then Strauss left for a while and Hotch was reassigned to Pakistan for some investigative taskforce after JJ joined the team and we solved like 17 cases in 14 weeks which is super impressive considering the team downsized. Oh, and Sergio’s been the absolute best. He’s such a mama’s boy but he doesn’t like Kevin a lot.”

“Yeah, that’s not surprising,” Piper joked softly, fiddling with her Rubix cube as Penelope whirled around.

“Did you just rag on Kevin?” Penelope asked, slightly in outrage and Piper’s neck shot up.

“No—I didn’t mean—I’m sorry, I just—I thought…” Piper kept stammering until Penelope laughed. “But you’re not mad,” Piper said, slightly confused, as though she were missing something. Penelope shook her head, reaching a hand for the printer.

“No, I just—I really missed you,” Penelope confessed, and Piper smiled ruefully. Without saying a word, Piper pulled Penelope in for a soft hug, something she never initiated. Penelope could’ve started crying. “Okay,” she said, decisively, pulling away first. “You have to tell me everything about Declan.” Piper laughed a little before walking out the lair with her, telling her about the science fairs he’d won, his impeccable test scores, his status as an honour student. “Well, he sounds like a mini-Reid,” Penelope scoffed, and Piper stifled her laugh as they walked into the conference room where Hotch was standing. Piper stood, surveying her old unit chief, unrecognisable in front of her.

“Hotch?” Piper asked and the man turned around to face her. “That’s not—You’re not—” Penelope made to explain but he stopped her.

“It takes a minute. Go on, say it.”

“You’re not wearing a suit,” Piper murmured, glancing at his black tee and a navy checked over-shirt. “Who are you?”

“Very funny,” Hotch dismissed the joke, addressing Garcia next. “What do you have?”

“A top ten list of Doyle’s enemies,” Penelope said, handing him the list.

“Anybody recently in the states?”

“Richard Gerace's been here a few weeks,” Penelope said. “He's a low-level gun-runner who angrily crossed paths with Doyle.”

“Wait, I know that name,” Piper said. “Our surveillance officer, she caught an image of him on the surveillance camera at Declan's house, confirmed it was him through a scar on his neck.”

“And you dismissed him?” Aaron asked her.

“Gerace isn’t smart enough to go after Declan on his own,” Piper explained. “I dismissed him as a low-level threat.”

“All right. Get me everything you can on Gerace.”

“Yeah, about that,” Penelope said nervously. “What I just told you is everything I've got.” Aaron nodded, thanking her before leaving for the interrogation room. Penelope moved back to her lair, determined to try and find anything else on Gerace.

Piper would have followed if not for her gaze falling on the tall, handsome man entering the bullpen, her go-bag clutched in his hand. Blaming her lightheadedness on him, she made her way down the catwalk, stopping in front of her old, empty desk. Dave and Aaron headed to the left passageway to join Derek while Spencer approached her. “Hey,” Piper managed. There was so much she wanted to say to him. She wanted to apologise, mostly for lying, but she’d already done that. She wanted to hug him, to melt into his warmth and forget about everything else, but she wasn’t sure he’d appreciate that.

“Hey,” Spencer said, folding his mouth into a curvy line. “I, uh, I found a bag of your stuff in the bedroom.” _With him,_ he wanted to add bitterly. He could stand the thought of her sharing a room with that…murdered man. “I thought that, um, that you might want to change,” he said, his voice slightly shaky.

“Thanks,” Piper said softly, brushing her fingers against him as he handed the duffel over to her. Wincing softly in pain, she let the bag hang cross her body. Spencer flinched, his arms ready, but he wasn’t quite sure what for. He watched her leave, sidling past him, the dead weighing down on her conscience as she pushed through the glass doors.

* * *

Dave shifted his gaze to Aaron’s beard again, stifling a laugh. “How was the desert?”

“Hot,” Aaron said simply.

“You seen Jack yet?”

“No. Jessica took him to Hershey Park for the weekend,” the unit chief answered, typing out a text for Derek’s cell.

“Well, he'll love that beard,” Dave offered.

“Yeah, we Skyped every day. He's not a fan,” Aaron said, eliciting a soft smirk from Dave and both profilers focused on the interview play out in front of them.

“Doyle, do you consider Richard Gerace an enemy?” Derek prodded at Ian.

“I don't consider him at all,” Ian said dryly.

“Tell me about him.”

“Gave him a nasty scar in Belfast 20 years ago. Hasn't been my problem since.”

“Whose problem was he?” Aaron watched Doyle contemplate the question.

“She won't help,” he told them.

“Why not?”

“Because I killed her,” Ian admitted and Dave glanced over at Aaron who left the room, cell in hand

* * *

Spencer was at the firing range again. He always came down here when he had nothing to do, which had started to become more often recently. His brain had turned over Emily’s death as though it were a chemistry equation, swapping certain factors out. Piper was right all those months ago. Coming clean too early would have left them with not enough information to find Emily in the first place. He’d gone over the reports a dozen times, each time coming to the same conclusion. Manpower. That was the only variable left. Spencer wasn’t authorised to carry submachine guns and while Piper had amended that shortcoming, he’d never thought that his lack of training would have led to this kind of shortfall. Perhaps things would have gone different if he’d been allowed into the field with the others, had he been given his own back-up unit with Rossi. So, he came to the firing range. He put in the hours, working on his aim every given moment until JJ interrupted him, telling him Hotch wanted everyone in the conference room in 10 minutes, asking him where Piper was. He offered to tell her, knowing exactly where she would be right now.

He always felt uncomfortable in the gym area of the field office, always feeling everyone gawking at him as he padded through to the locker rooms. Piper was on a bench, her hair slightly damp, fiddling with a loose thread on her cardigan. The cut on her cheek seemed to have started healing, closing up on its own. A pair of glasses hung from the top of her blouse and she didn’t look up as Spencer approached her. “Hey, Hotch wants to see us in ten minutes.”

“Okay,” she mumbled, still staring at the loose thread and Spencer took a seat next to her. “I really am sorry, Spence.”

“I know,” Spencer said genuinely, and Piper’s hand hovered above his, meeting his gaze in question. But Spencer just clutched it, lacing his fingers through hers. It fit imperfectly, his long fingers interlocking with her short, chubby ones. They didn’t feel as rough as they used to, her calluses faded from months of not playing. But her touch was familiar, the same feeling of warmth and home rushing through his system. The scientist in him identified it as a cocktail of serotonin, dopamine and oxytocin. The romantic in him was just glad to have her back, to feel her nestle her head into the crook of his neck. “Piper?” She hummed. “If I kissed you, would you be mad?” Piper didn’t even bother opening her eyes as she lifted her pounding head to capture his lips in a soft, sweet kiss. Her free hand snaked around to cup his jaw, sucking softly on his upper lip. Spencer’s free hand gravitated to her waist, holding her gently until she winced as his thumb brushed against her lower abdomen. “What was that?”

“It’s nothing,” Piper dismissed but Spencer just gave her a look. “It’s just a bruise, I’m fine.”

“Let me have a look,” Spencer pleaded, and Piper sighed, lifting her shirt up just enough so he could see the purple colour tinging her usually pale skin. “Can I touch you?” he asked softly, and Piper nodded, closing her eyes instinctively, biting her lip so she wouldn’t wince as his thumb brushed against her tender skin. “Does that hurt?”

“Only when I think about it,” Piper supplied. “And when someone jabs their finger into it.” She sucked in a breath as Spencer pressed slowly, his thumb drifting higher and higher until she cried out in pain before biting her lip hard enough to draw lip.

“You’ve got a broken rib and blunt force trauma to the abdomen.” Piper shifted, pushing her shirt back down.

“And here I thought it was just that bitch’s shoe to my stomach,” she snorted, grimacing as she got up.

“Piper, what did she do to you?” Spencer persisted. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“It’s nothing you need to know,” she dismissed him.

“There you go again, deciding what I need to or don’t need to know,” Spencer said, his voice reaching a higher octave. “Piper, I’m not just your partner. I’m a federal agent, have been longer than you. So, stop trying to protect me and let me in,” he urged. Piper leaned against the lockers. “Our unsubs shot two federal agents, poisoned another one. They beat up Declan’s nanny. That was overkill.”

“You’re asking me why I’m alive?” Piper scoffed, fidgeting with her fingers. “It was Declan. He was sick from some stupid cupcake. He’d been vomiting all day, so Louise was with him in the bathroom, locked from the inside. I was inside the closet. I hoped if they got in at all, they would assume it was just empty. Except someone turned the light on in the bathroom.” Piper’s voice grew faint. “I panicked. That was the signal that they could come out. I pulled out my cell, sending a text as quickly as I could, but I wasn’t fast enough. Louise unlocked the door and the woman, she just pulled her out, but I don’t think she saw Declan. I burst out, firing two shots at her and the other guy, he just grabbed me by the hair.” Piper closed her eyes, her voice so soft as though it hurt to speak. “He was going to shoot me. I could feel the barrel of his gun right above my ear. But it was like he was waiting for something. She told him to finish the job and…” A single tear slipped from her closed eyelid. “Declan stopped them.”

“What?”

“He said something, yelled something out and the woman—she just came up to me and used her gun to slap me.”

“What did he say?”

“Next thing I know, she’s got me on the floor and she’s kicking me.”

“Piper,” Spencer called her from her spiral of pain. “What did Declan say?” She opened her eyes, his body inches from hers.

“Don’t hurt my mom,” Piper whispered, her voice breaking when Spencer pulled her close, letting her bury her head in his shoulder.


	5. Chapter 5

Spencer stood in front of the large briefing screen beside Penelope and JJ, a hand resting on Piper’s chair as she kept fiddling with the loose thread of her cardigan, finally looking up when Derek entered the room, trailed by Dave and Aaron. “You get anywhere with Doyle?” Spencer asked.

“Doyle doesn’t think Gerace had the guts to take him on,” Derek said and Piper resisted the urge to say _I told you so._

“But that’s definitely Gerace on the tape,” Penelope countered.

“He’s working with at least one other person though,” Piper added. “There’s definitely a woman involved.”

“Plus, with the level of overkill on the nanny, this is definitely personal,” Rossi continued.

“So, we look for anyone who had a grudge against Louise and Ian Doyle,” Derek summed up, confident before noticing the look that Piper and Spencer shared. “Something I’m missing, geniuses?”

“Have we looked for Declan’s mother?” Spencer asked.

“Isn’t Louise the mother?” JJ asked them.

“No,” Piper said softly. “She was his legal guardian. She told me that Ian made it look like Declan was Louise’s so that his enemies wouldn’t find him. There aren’t many people who know that Declan’s father is Ian.”

“His mother would know that,” Dave said.

“I can start looking,” Penelope offered, opening up her laptop when Aaron interrupted.

“Everyone should have a seat,” Aaron directed and each of them obliged except JJ who moved to the front with Hotch.

“Everything alright?” Derek asked.

“7 months ago, I made a decision that affected this team,” Aaron announced, crossing his arms as Dave and Piper shared a quizzical brow. “As you all know, Emily had lost a lot of blood after her fight with Doyle. But the doctors were able to stabilise her.” Penelope shifted her attention more closely to Hotch and Derek’s lips parted in surprise. “And she was airlifted from Boston to Bethesda under a covert exfiltration.” Derek turned to Rossi immediately, gauging his reaction while Spencer turned to Piper, as though this was another secret that she’d kept from him, except she was just as surprised as the others, wrinkling her forehead as she tried to understand. “Her identity was strictly need-to-know. And she stayed there until she was well enough to travel. She was reassigned to Paris where she was given several identities, none of which we had access to for her security.” Aaron tried not to look at Penelope whose eyes had started to well up.

“She’s alive?” Penelope said, her voice breathy.

“Need-to-know?” Piper said, her voice dangerously low. “We didn’t need to know?” Derek’s gaze kept switching between Penelope, who he wanted to hug so tight and warm as though that would make the hurt go away, to Aaron who he honestly felt like punching, a similar sentiment to Piper.

“But we buried her,” Spencer said, confused.

“As I said, I take full responsibility for the decision,” Aaron reiterated. “If anyone has any issues, they should be directed toward me.”

“Any issues?” Derek asked, still standing. “Yeah, I got issues,” he said, noticing Penelope’s gaze shift from him to the door, just like everyone else, falling on Emily Prentiss standing by the door of the briefing room. Penelope’s watery eyes glittered under the artificial light as Derek turned around. She’d gotten rid of her bangs and was wearing a dark shawl around her black top and dress pants, a large bag hooked on her shoulder as JJ smiled softly in the corner at the sight of her old friend. Emily’s attention was hooked on Derek whose gaze went back and forth from Emily to Aaron before shifting to Piper who stood up shakily, her heart breaking at the sight of her cuts and bruises. Emily stepped over, approaching Piper first.

“I am so sorry,” Emily said gently, as though another punch in the gut might fell Piper completely.

“You’re here,” Piper said under her breath before melting in her closest friend’s embrace. She stepped away, letting the others embrace her, staring at the carpeted floor, wondering how to tell her that once again, she had let her down.

“I am sorry,” she repeated, embracing Spencer, then Penelope who clutched at Emily’s hand. “I really am. Not a day went by that I didn't want to... Really, I—” Her gaze fell on Derek who stood stock still in shock. “You didn’t deserve that,” she murmured, embracing him as he slowly managed to raise a hand against her back. “And I'm so sorry. There's so much I want to tell you guys, and I will. I promise. But right now, I really need to know what's going on with Declan,” Emily said, stepping to the front beside Hotch.

“How’d you know what was going on?” Spencer asked as Derek still reeled in his stance.

“My friend, Tom Koehler. He called me, told me that Declan had been taken,” Emily reported.

“Wait, Tom’s alive?” Piper said, instantly wrapping away her guilt for later. The others glanced back at her by the coffee machine.

“Last I heard of him, he was hiding out, in case our unsubs tracked him down.” Piper sighed deeply in relief that at least someone in her team had survived.

“And because of Tom’s line of work, you enrolled Declan in a boarding school,” Aaron surmised.

“I made sure that he, Louise, and I were the only ones allowed to take him off campus,” Emily agreed.

“Except when we stepped in, Tom wasn’t comfortable with Declan spending all his time on campus. We would only be able to keep an eye on him for so long.”

“Right,” Emily said. “Tom kept me in the loop with your team’s system. An agent at the school, an agent picking him up, an agent on surveillance and an agent to stay with Louise.”

“Declan wasn’t supposed to come home that night though,” Piper filled her in. “He’d had food poisoning; everyone had been sent home. Then Tom told us that Luke had been poisoned with arsenic and that you were arresting Ian. I panicked, kicked us into emergency protocol in case Ian wanted to kickstart some endgame.”

“So, whoever did this got to him on campus,” Spencer realised. “They knew they only had one chance.”

“Current suspect is Richard Gerace,” JJ updated. “He's the most recent arrival into the states. We've been tracking his progress through the city, but we came up empty.”

“But we know it's him because he has the scar,” Penelope added.

“That doesn't make sense,” Emily said, catching Derek who seemed to still be making sense of everything. “Gerace gave up on Doyle a long time ago.”

“He said you were the only one who knew Gerace,” Dave pointed out.

“Which is why I'm pretty sure he doesn't have the balls to pull this off,” Emily countered.

“Which was what I said,” Piper muttered. “Em, he’s working with a woman.”

“There was no forced entry at the house?” Emily asked.

“They posed as back-up agents,” Piper sighed. “Which is why I think Lillian opened the door at all. We need to start looking for the woman.”

“We think she’s the alpha in the dynamic,” Spencer explained. “Someone with a vendetta against Doyle.”

“Then our suspect list just got a lot longer,” Emily said. “Did you catch what she looked like?”

“English, long dark hair, roundish face, in her 30s,” Piper said slowly.

“Could you recognise her picture?”

“I could certainly try,” Piper said, a grim smile flashing on her face.

* * *

Emily and JJ oversaw Penelope start to upload all of Emily’s new files onto her hard drive before asking her to send them to the roundtable and leaving to join the others. “So, you're actually back,” Emily said to JJ as they made their way down the hallway outside of Penelope’s lair.

“They've been looking for your replacement, and Rossi called me.” Emily laughed.

“That's great,” she said. “How's Will with the long hours again?”

“Long story,” JJ dismissed.

“I haven't seen Ashley,” Emily said, changing the subject.

“Oh, well, she transferred to Andi Swann's unit.”

“Good for her. So, how, uh, angry is the team?”

“They're in shock.”

“Of course.” Emily stopped outside the glass doors, facing JJ. “Thank you,” she said softly.

“It is really good to see you,” JJ smiled before the two women tucked their arms around each other and crossed the bullpen, up the catwalk to join the others. Derek and Dave were staring at their board while Spencer and Piper were trying to reach the families of Lincoln Rook, known to his fiancée as Georg Rolf, Lillian Rudolph, known to her 7-year-old daughter as Mom and Jasmine Fernandez and Luke Rogers, known to his husband as Simon Rochester. So far, the Rolf’s and the Rochester’s had answered, but Piper had trouble getting hold of the Fernandez’s. She looked up from her phone, hanging up as Emily directed the team’s attention to the photos on the board.

“These women are associates of Doyle's who may have crossed paths with Gerace,” Emily announced.

“Anyone have a deeper personal connection with Doyle?” Derek asked, noticing Piper step closer to the large screen. Emily shook her head.

“Whoever took Declan showed a lot of rage at the nanny,” Aaron said, glancing back at their victim board.

“She had been with Doyle since before Declan was born,” Emily recapped.

“The nanny represents a caregiver, a mother figure,” Spencer outlined. “Who’s Declan’s mother?”

“Doyle told me she was dead,” Emily said.

“It’s her,” Piper said softly, gazing at the unmistakeable face of the woman who tortured Louise and took Declan.

“You’re sure?” Aaron asked and Piper shifted her gaze to him.

“I can’t forget her face, Hotch. It’s her.”


	6. Chapter 6

Derek accompanied Emily to the holding room in silence until they reached the end of the corridor. “You don’t have to do this,” he told her softly.

“Yeah,” she counted. “I do.” Derek nodded sombrely, opening the door for her before moving into the viewing room. Ian looked up from his shackles, unable to comprehend what he was seeing. Emily was wearing a white shirt, just like all those years ago in his garden in Italy. Flashes of the night he killed her played in his head until she said one name. “Chloe Donaghy. That’s Declan’s mother, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” he drawled. “But she had nothing to do with this.”

“How do you know? Did you kill her, too?” Emily taunted.

“Because she tried to kill Declan before he was ever born.”

Meanwhile, Piper rolled back the campus security tapes to the day of, telling them that the same woman had brought tainted cupcakes to the boarding school and just walked right in. When Luke had tried to press her for answers, she gave him a cyanide injection in his office, not knowing there was a secret camera kept in Luke’s office. “So, you didn’t know who she was?” Aaron prompted her.

“We didn’t have time to worry about a background check,” Piper defended her team. “We knew the food poisoning was done for a reason, so we waited for her to come to us.”

“Yeah, well, we thought Doyle was bad, check her out,” Dave said, passing her record to JJ.

“Yeah, she ran an international prostitution ring _before_ moving on to chemicals. Distribution and trafficking, manufacturing, possession, weapons charges?”

“Went away for 3 years,” Dave said.

“That's it?” Penelope asked.

“She hardly seems like the mothering type,” JJ said. “Why would she take Declan?”

“It isn’t love,” Aaron said, straightening up to look at her blown up picture.

“This woman is methodical,” Piper said. “She didn’t care about who was protecting Declan. She’s angry at mothers and caregivers.”

“Except she left you alive,” Dave said. “Why do that?” Piper licked her lips.

“Because Declan called me his mum. It was what we told him to say in front of anyone he didn’t recognise.”

“So, she injured you, tied you up in a corner and left with Declan?” JJ repeated. “Why?”

“I’m her surrogate,” Piper said simply, sinking into a seat. “She must be doing to me what happened to her.”

“With that logic, Ian must have tortured her and taken her child from her,” Spencer said. “Why would he do that?”

“Well, we established that she doesn’t love him,” JJ said. “Maybe she didn’t want him.”

“She wants revenge on Doyle,” Aaron remarked. “What else would she and Gerace have to gain from taking Declan?”

“Money,” Emily answered from the door, Derek trailing behind her as she passed a document to Aaron. “Here’s a list of Chloe’s associates who have healthy bank accounts.”

“He thinks it's a trade?” JJ asked. “For what, weapons? Drugs?”

“Does it matter?” Aaron dismissed, passing Garcia the document. “Run these names. See if any have local connections.”

“Yeah. What else should I be looking for, you guys?”

“Secluded properties,” Dave volunteered first.

“A legitimate business that requires international bank accounts and trade,” Spencer added. “It could be mundane. They survive under the radar.”

“Garcia start with Irish backgrounds,” Derek directed as Piper stood up behind Penelope, overlooking the computer. “This type of feud could go back generations.”

“Oh. It looks like the Doyles and the McDermotts have a thing,” Penelope said.

“What kind of thing?” Aaron asked.

“Ian Doyle murdered Jimmy McDermott, but his younger brother Lachlan owns an import company.”

“Do they ship internationally?” Dave asked.

“You know it. He has 3 warehouses, once of which is slated to be demolished.”

“Where?”

“Inner Harbor, Baltimore,” Penelope said, watching as the entire team looked to Aaron for instructions.

“Let’s go.”

* * *

Piper hadn’t been in the field for 7 months and she still had her injury to consider. Emily insisted that she wanted to stay behind with Doyle, and like Piper, hadn’t been in the field for months either. Spencer volunteered to stay behind, realising that they should have at least one field agent remain in Quantico while everyone else went to Baltimore. While Emily caught up with Penelope, Spencer helped Piper bandage the rest of her injuries. Which really meant that Piper was sitting stock still in Dave’s office, shirtless as Spencer wrapped a cotton bandage around her stomach. “You know, you could’ve just asked me to take my shirt off,” Piper joked, and Spencer glanced up at her. “Sorry,” she muttered.

“You use humour as a coping mechanism to try and hide your true feelings, I get it. Derek does the same thing, not right now though.”

“You’re not exactly immune to it either,” Piper said, wincing slightly.

“Sorry,” he muttered. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”

“That neither of us are exactly perfect at communicating,” Piper scoffed as he pinned the bandage together with a safety pin, rising up from his hunched over figure. “When were you going to tell me that your headaches were back? Or that you weren’t sleeping?”

“There wasn’t anything you could’ve done about it,” Spencer protested. “And it wasn’t as big a lie as an undercover protective detail.”

“I know that. All I’m asking is that you try and understand why I lied,” Piper said placatingly and Spencer’s face had stilled completely. He looked the same as when she had left, but something was just slightly different.

“I thought you’d left me,” Spencer said as quietly as his voice would go. “I needed you and you weren’t there.”

“I’m not going to leave you,” Piper asserted, a hand sliding up to cup his face. “You’re never going to have to suffer by yourself again, I promise.” Spencer moved in to close the gap between them when his cell buzzed. Piper resigned to putting the rest of her clothes back on and unlocking the door.

“Something wrong?”

“Declan’s disappeared,” Spencer said darkly. “They killed Gerace.”

“She’s cleaning up house,” Piper said, offering Spencer to leave the office first before beckoning Emily from the roundtable. “Probably thinks she’ll get more from McDermott without him in the picture,” she said as the trio moved down to the interrogation room.

“All we know is that they had Declan at the warehouse, now he’s gone.” Emily could barely say a word as Spencer sidled past both of them and into the room with Doyle. “Your ex is working with Lachlan McDermott. How would he leave the country?”

“I don't know. He's got endless funds. You'll never stop him.”

“He hates you, doesn’t he?” Spencer retaliated.

“More than you do,” Ian retorted.

“Then I think we should give him what he really wants,” Spencer solved. “You.” He had barely finished uttering the word when Emily burst in, followed by Piper.

“No, absolutely not. We are not letting him out of here.”

“Emily, I will chain myself to him if I have to,” Spencer urged.

“He'll find a way to escape,” Emily countered.

“No, he won't, and we're running out of time. If we find McDermott now, we have a chance to save Declan,” Spencer appealed to the both of them. Emily turned to Piper, hoping she would take her side, but Piper’s gaze was locked on Spencer.

“Declan’s the priority,” Piper said, letting Spencer relax his shoulders. “But we’re clearing it with Hotch first.” Piper left the room abruptly to find Penelope and Emily followed her resignedly. Spencer closed the door behind him, leaving Doyle alone again.

Penelope found a private airfield in Maryland belonging to McDermott and while Emily cleared it with Hotch, Piper marched over to the section chief’s office.

“No,” Strauss said.

“Ma’am, we don’t have a lot of choices here,” Piper explained exasperatedly. “Without the proper leverage, McDermott and Donaghy will leave Maryland. The second they leave, the case is out of our jurisdiction.”

“And how do you know McDermott won’t just leave with Doyle and the son?”

“His _name_ is Declan,” Piper corrected her. “And we have one shot at getting him back. Believe me, we will make this work.”

“You can’t _guarantee_ that,” Strauss retorted.

“I _can_ guarantee that we will do everything feasible to nail Ian Doyle in a court of law, but I can also guarantee that I am going to do everything in my power to save Declan.” Strauss met Piper’s gaze. “I’d rather do it with your support than without it.”

“The team's already on their way, aren't they?”

“So’s the chopper, ma’am,” Piper said, standing straight in front of her.

“Try not to get anyone killed,” Erin sighed, and Piper nodded, rushing out the door to relay Strauss’s reluctant approval to the others.

* * *

The last time Piper had been in a chopper was with Sam Cooper in San Francisco, acting as his GPS. Now she sat in the front with Ian behind her seated between Spencer and Emily while the pilot steered them towards the airfield in Maryland, landing among half a dozen SUVs. Derek had called in a SWAT unit for back-up and Piper waited for the chopper to completely stop before jumping out to help Emily down with Ian Doyle in tow. Finally, Spencer joined them on the ground as Aaron made the first contact through the megaphone, addressing McDermott inside the plane. They heard a gunshot and Piper unholstered her weapon, fearing the worst for Declan. Lachlan McDermott emerged shortly after, a gun in one hand, her boy in the other. Piper desperately wanted to put a bullet in his brain but restrained herself as she watched Spencer, Ian and Emily approach him.

“Hotch, are we really gonna do this?” Piper asked the unit chief.

“No-one leaves here,” Aaron confirmed, swapping the megaphone for his gun. Piper’s gaze was sharp, alert as Chloe managed to stumble out of the jet with a—

“Gun!” Derek yelled and the next few moments flashed before Dave’s eyes. Spencer had whipped out his gun. Piper had surged forward, sprinting for Declan. Chloe had released two successive shots, firing once at McDermott, then Doyle and was about to fire on Piper as she tackled Declan to the ground, covering him with her body when Spencer released two consecutive shots from his revolver into Chloe’s body. Emily moved over to check McDermott’s pulse while Spencer checked Doyle’s. JJ moved in next, checking Chloe’s pulse as Declan embraced Piper.

“I’ve got you,” she murmured as he tucked his body into hers. Spencer’s eyes flicked up to Piper’s hunched body, the profiler in him noticing how they clung to each other, how Declan tucked his head into her shoulder, how Piper closed her eyes, assured that finally, Declan was safe.


	7. Chapter 7

The question remained on what to do about Declan. Declan sat next to Spencer in the conference room as Tom entered the bullpen with Piper. “I know you,” Declan said abruptly, causing Spencer to wrinkle his forehead. “You’re Spencer, right? Piper talks about you a lot.”

“What did she say?” Declan snorted derisively.

“I’m not supposed to say.”

“I won’t tell her,” Spencer said, smiling easily at him.

“Well, if you must know, she says you don’t know anything about rock music which is um… How did she put it?” Declan thought for a moment. “Oh, yeah. ‘A most deplorable tragedy that even the most merciful god couldn’t forgive’,” Declan laughed.

“That um, that sounds like something she’d say,” Spencer said, a broad smile on his face.

“Yeah, well, for what it’s worth,” Declan announced, noticing Tom and Piper cross the bullpen. “She really likes you. Although waffles come a close second,” he amended, eliciting another warm laugh from Spencer, confusing Piper as she walked in with Tom. “So, are you two going to fight over who gets to be my legal guardian?” Declan asked, a smile on his face. Piper turned to Tom, gauging his stock and build.

“I dunno, I could take you,” Piper joked.

“Really?” Tom asked her. “One punch in the gut and you’d fall over.” Piper pouted.

“Deck, what do you think about going to boarding school full-time?” He shrugged happily.

“I’m cool with it. Might finally get to spend some time with my dormmates.”

“Alright,” Piper said, kneeling down in front of the kid. “Tom’s insisting that he wants to be your primary carer, so I’m willing to step back. Whenever Tom isn’t in town, I’ll be here. We cool?” Piper asked, raising her palm upwards, letting Declan slap it.

“We’re cool.” He flashed her a rueful smile and passed Spencer a wink before leaving with Tom to go home.

“You sure about this?” Spencer asked, noticing Piper watch them leave wistfully.

“Yeah,” she sighed. “Technically, since the transfer to San Francisco was just a backstop, I never really transferred out of the BAU.” Piper shoved her hands into her jean pockets, turning her gaze to Spencer. “I can’t do this job and be a full-time carer for Declan.” Spencer shrugged.

“JJ does it all the time.” Piper snorted.

“JJ is like Wonder Woman. And she has Will.” Spencer nodded, standing up. “Hey, Spence? We cool?” Piper asked, holding her palm out with a smirk masking her fear. Spencer made to slap it but ended up just grasping it.

“We’re cool,” he confirmed, and Piper interlaced her fingers in his as the duo walked out into the empty office. “I propose ice-cream and Doctor Who at my place.”

“Counter-offer, we watch lame horror movies and eat popcorn.”

“You watched this year’s episodes, didn’t you?” Spencer asked, laughing incredulously at the lack of response.

“Okay, yes, but in my defence, Declan said he’d never heard of Doctor Who before,” Piper retorted, grabbing her go-bag from her desk. “I had to introduce him to Matt Smith, and I do not believe that you held off on watching it.”

“Hey, I did,” Spencer protested. “Until May. I gave in after that.” Piper yelled in eureka before discussing the latest season’s arc and plot holes regarding Amy Pond, letting the glass doors close behind them.

* * *

Spencer rolled over to his left side, his arm landing on empty sheets, which didn’t elicit an immediate reaction. His hand patted the sheets, subconsciously searching for the familiar lump of her girlfriend’s frame, slowly blinking sleepily. This had been a ritual the past 7 months as his subconscious refused to reconcile the idea that she was gone but his forehead started to crease. She really was supposed to be here. Unless he had dreamed up all of it like Alice in Wonderland, but that seemed unlikely. No, he definitely remembered she was here, confirmed by the watch and necklace that lay on the bedside table.

He remembered that they had ordered takeout, her favourite Chinese food, his favourite Indian food, before re-watching the 11th Doctor’s seasons. They had finished dinner and a bowl of ice-cream each while arguing about chronon radiation. Somehow, despite her self-deprecation regarding physics, she’d grasped the concept of time energy rather quickly and in the middle of her rant about the Weeping Angels, he’d been overcome with the desire to make up for the last 7 months.

It was like nothing had changed, the Doctor Who end credits running in the background as her freezing hands ran over his upper chest and neck, his fingers tangling in the roots of her hair as his lips ritually worshipped every inch of her skin between giggles at stubborn articles of clothing. He wasn’t very bothered about turning the TV off, just getting her to his bed as soon as humanly possible. His echoic memory paled in comparison to his eidetic memory, but he was sure that her soft moans at his touch was embedded in his brain just like the feel of her lazy, gentle kisses as they cuddled under the duvet.

They’d pulled apart at the sound of his cell ringing, grumbling quietly as Spencer left the room to answer it. He found it between the empty boxes of takeout, answering JJ’s call wearily. He’d come back in to find her asleep in her ratty college sweatshirt, snoring softly and now, he found her in the living room, reading his copy of the DSM-4 filled with sticky notes from the both of them. Unlike him, she had to revise her knowledge every few months, adding another sticky note that referenced a case they’d worked.

Even in his drowsy state, he noted the pile of books next to the open book and a packet of nuts. She wasn’t sleeping any time soon, the profiler in him noted as he padded over to her. And she clearly wasn’t reading for pleasure either. His heart broke at the implication of why she was revising her speciality. He rapped his knuckles in a familiar rhythm on the wall, a habit they both picked up after the terrifying instance when she had plunged her elbow into Derek when he tried to surprise her. Piper smiled at him weakly, returning to her book as he approached her, even pressing a kiss to his cheek as he nuzzled his face into the crook of her neck. Her focus flickered as Spencer started brushing soft, lingering kisses behind her earlobe. “I’m trying to read,” Piper said, her voice slightly husky as Spencer’s soft pink lips murmured in his ear.

“Sorry, am I distracting you?” He smirked softly before kissing her jaw harder, careful not to leave a mark. Piper hummed softly at the feel of his teeth grazing at her jaw, his thumb pressing circles into her abdomen. “What are you reading?”

“Oh, I hate you,” Piper murmured, barely able to open her eyes and felt his smile against her skin.

“No, you don’t,” he mumbled. “Read to me, please.” She struggled to focus on the words as she felt Spencer’s fingertips brush her hair away from her skin, her neck angled perfectly for his butterfly kisses, cursing softly as he gently pulled her hair. She closed her eyes before flashing back to that night, Chloe’s boot punching through her gut over and over again until she curled in on herself, Declan begging for the woman to stop, Louise’s screams echoing over and over and over and over and over—

“Stop, Spence, just—just stop,” Piper said abruptly, her voice cracking, pushing at his chest gently. Spencer’s forehead creased again as Piper pulled off her glasses, threading her fingers through her hair as she put her head in her hands, the book forgotten on the desk as she desperately tried to quell the tears that threatened to spill over.

“Piper, Declan’s safe, you’re safe,” he tried, crouching next to the chair. Piper scoffed.

“Yeah, I’m safe. I’m always safe. I’m the survivor,” she spat. “Like that’s something to be proud of.”

“We saved him, Pipes. We protected Declan.”

“No, you protected Declan,” she corrected angrily. “I’m the reason he needed protecting at all. I was supposed to die before that happened.” She withdrew her hands from her hair, sliding them up her nose as the tears did their damage. “I can’t close my eyes before hearing her voice. Hearing that—that bitch laugh, hearing Lou just scream.” Spencer swivelled her chair to face him.

“Listen to me very clearly. This isn’t your fault. You did everything you could,” he said, his hands gently placed on her lap.

“Why isn’t that ever enough?” Piper cried, her voice hitting a decibel he’d never heard from her. “Why isn’t that enough? Why aren’t I ever good enough?”

“Piper—” he tried again but she just rose from the chair, tears streaming freely as she leaned against the side of his bookshelf.

“This is the only thing I’ve ever cared about doing,” she cried. “I have tried everything. I have tried counselling and teaching and psychiatry. Spence, I joined the fucking FBI just to help people. To care about people and to protect them. That’s the only job I’ve ever wanted to do, and I can’t even do that right!” she yelled, breaking down every last piece of resolve she had left as she slid down to the floor, racking sobs from her body at an ungodly hour, pressing her body into Spencer’s in a desperate attempt to feel anything but empty.

He should’ve been angry from the moment he realised she had lied to him for months. But how could he have, seeing her bruised body in that house, taped together, having lost all hope at seeing Declan again, forced to relive the events over and over in her head as she crumbled next to Louise’s dead body, realising slowly as the hours ticked by that the rest of her team was probably dead. How could he possibly be mad at her when she was so mad at herself? He didn’t dare wake her up, simply moving her resting body to the couch, holding her hand as he fell asleep, his head leaning on the edge of the dark green couch, his sconces shining amber light on the two of them as the night bled on.


	8. Chapter 8

Piper woke up late, which meant she woke up at a human hour, shielding her eyes from the light that poured through the windows of Spencer’s apartment. The smell of waffles permeated the apartment, and she rubbed her eyes rather tiredly, suppressing a yawn as she finally got to her feet. Last night’s dinner lay littered on the coffee table, their clothes strewn over the rug. “Morning,” Spencer said brightly, smiling as Piper squinted at him.

“How long was I asleep?” she grumbled.

“Considering you fell asleep at half-past midnight, 7 hours, 45 minutes and 14 seconds,” Spencer answered, nursing his cup of tea. “You hungry?” Piper clutched her ribs, wincing slightly as she stood up.

“I’m good,” she sighed, running a hand through the knots in her short hair, stumbling to the bathroom, either ignoring or not noticing Spencer’s falling face, his tongue poking out between his lips in thought, a pile of waffles waiting for the both of them. Sighing, he started on his breakfast, hoping Piper would eat something later. When she did emerge, one fresh shower later, she managed to look even sallower than last night, pouring herself a cup of tea from the fresh pot Spencer had made. It wasn’t like he had expected them to have a heart-warming conversation when she woke up, but at least some form of acknowledgement about the night before. Instead, Piper just drank her cup of tea, one of his cardigans draped over her shoulders over a dark green button-down. “Did you get that text from Rossi?” Piper asked, placing a waffle on her plate. “About the inquiry?”

“Yeah, JJ called about it last night,” Spencer admitted, and Piper’s brows creased. “You were asleep, I didn’t want to bother you.” She nodded stiffly. “She asked if we wanted to do brunch this weekend.”

“What did you say?” Piper asked, her concern over Spencer bringing a little more life to her face. Spencer shrugged.

“Told her we’d think about it.” Spencer didn’t particularly want to go anywhere with JJ or Emily but if it would get Piper out of her shell, he was more than willing to put up with a little social interaction.

“I dunno. I’ve still got to get this rib checked out assuming it really is broken,” she said pointedly, trying to inject a little humour into their grey morning.

“I’ll eat my socks if it isn’t,” Spencer said, shovelling a bite into his mouth, letting the whipped cream melt in his mouth like her small smile melted him.

“I don’t think the penguins on your sock would appreciate it.”

“Clearly, I was referencing the avocado ones,” Spencer deadpanned, eliciting a small laugh from her lips.

“You worried about this inquiry?” Piper asked but Spencer just shrugged.

“There’s nothing to worry about. I think we all need a break from the unit anyway.”

“Yeah, what would we do?” Piper said, falling into an easy pattern with Spencer.

“I dunno. Casino robbing in Vegas?” Spencer suggested, breaking into a smile at the idea.

“You don’t need to rob casinos,” Piper scoffed, finally feeling the pit in her stomach growl for food. “You’d end up winning it all anyway.”

“That’s exactly why I’m banned,” Spencer said, passing her the chocolate syrup. “You have a better idea?”

“Berkeley’s got vacancies but you’re not supposed to know,” Piper said. “I dunno, we could teach together.” Spencer wrinkled his forehead at the idea.

“Me, teaching? Piper, I made a joke about existentialism at the last seminar I went to.” Piper shrugged, digging into her chocolate-drenched waffles.

“I think you’d be really good at it. I mean, you taught me more about anthropology than my actual professor. From Georgetown.” She seemed much better than last night, but he’d thought the same thing the last time before she’d kicked him out and practically quarantined herself after Arthur’s death. “But I don’t mind Vegas either,” she admitted. “We could take care of your mom.”

“How’d you know?” Spencer asked, forehead wrinkling at the small desire that had been flowering the past few months. Piper set her knife and fork on the table.

“Casino-robbing?” Piper asked with a smirk. “How’d you possibly think I wouldn’t read into that?” Spencer sighed.

“Touché,” he sighed, rubbing at his neck, his lips parting in surprise as Piper stretched out a hand to clasp his.

“I think it’s a good idea. I could teach at UNLV, help you with your mom?” she offered. “We don’t even have to wait for the inquiry.”

“You’d do that?” Spencer asked his voice terribly quiet at her offer. “You’d throw away this life?” Piper just shrugged, moving her focus back to her waffles.

“I’d start a new one with you,” she said, her eyes trained on her breakfast. They could do it, get out and start a new life together. Just like Gideon. “I mean, we have 7 PhD’s between us,” Piper said, shattering the tender moment. “It’d be kinda stupid if we couldn’t find something to do.” He thought of something else, the two of them hunched over lab results, working on something he’d always wanted to solve. But Piper had always advocated lifestyle treatments over drug treatments, writing op-eds that picked apart cures for mental illnesses. Instead, he just said that they’d both miss the unit too much to leave it behind.

* * *

JJ was the first to be called in for the inquiry while the others waited outside. The courtroom was large, seven judges seated on the panel, the senator at the forefront of the inquisition. “And how long have you been back with the bureau?”

“Three and a half months, sir,” JJ answered.

“A lot has happened since then,” the senator remarked. “Sabbaticals, transfers, reassignments. Four of you remained in the unit?”

“Agents Rossi, Morgan, and I were there with our technical analyst Penelope Garcia,” JJ confirmed, remembering Spencer’s sabbatical, Ashley’s transfer and Hotch’s reassignment.

“Hmm. You had 14 cases in that time.”

“17, sir,” she corrected.

“Oh, yes. In 14 weeks. That's impressive.”

“Thank you,” JJ said.

“But what's more impressive is the fact that you were reinstated, promoted, and suspended in that short time. I believe that's a record, Agent Jareau.” JJ bit the inside of her cheek at her status as an agent in the BAU. She’d never been particularly desperate for the job as a profiler. She’d always been perfectly happy as a communications liaison but after her brief stint with the state department, she’d wanted more and with Emily’s absence, she was more than willing to make up that shortfall while Hotch kept Bishop’s spot open, oblivious to the undercover mission she was on.

“Do you realise what you've done?”

“Yes,” JJ challenged the senator. “We put an international criminal with terrorist connections in federal custody.”

“You may consider that a victory, but you used government funds for a personal vendetta, never called Homeland Security, and now 7 people, including three of your agents, are dead.” With no further questions, the senator dismissed JJ.

Outside the courtroom, Piper looked up to see Penelope come through the rope barring entry. “Hey,” she started, clearly panicked as she clung to Derek’s arm. “How long has she been in there? And why aren’t we in there?”

“They’re just trying to intimidate us, baby girl.”

“Well, that’s not about to happen,” Piper scoffed, sitting back on the bench next to Rossi while Spencer rubbed Penelope’s arm.

“I’m not okay with this,” Penelope said, her breath quickening as her glance shifted between her three close friends.

“You may not even be a witness,” Dave told her, trying to comfort the flamboyant woman.

“Sir, I’m not worried about me. Don’t they have anything better to do than—”

“Baby girl, this is just what they do,” Derek said, pressing a kiss to the top of her hair.

“Yeah, well, we’ve all got better things to do than just waiting around,” Piper said, picking at her fingernails. Derek raised an eyebrow at her and she shrugged nonchalantly as Rossi noticed JJ come through the door.

“Well?” Dave asked the woman and Spencer glanced between them, confused.

“It doesn’t look good,” JJ told Dave, passing a glance to Piper who understood, grabbing her takeaway cup, pecking Spencer’s cheek before leaving for the courtroom.

* * *

Piper had a cup of hot chocolate on the large table in front of her, pulling the cuffs of her green leather jacket up to her elbows as she met the senator’s unnerving gaze, refusing to back down. “How long had you been part of the protective detail for Declan Jones?”

“7 months, give or take a few weeks,” Piper said.

“And you had been put on this detail by Tom Koehler upon Agent Prentiss’s request, correct?”

“Yes,” Piper answered without the usual title.

“So, explain to me how it’s possible for two people to take out 3 trained federal agents,” the senator said, and Piper picked her boots of the table, straightening in her seat to address the senator.

“I wouldn’t know, Senator, considering I had been guarding Declan and Louise Jones in the upstairs bedroom.”

“But your premature decision to start the emergency protocols—”

“It wasn’t supposed to be my decision to make, Senator,” Piper said, spitting out the title sourly. “Our handler had become unresponsive, one of our agents was confirmed dead. Offensive action was out of the question.”

“I’m just trying to understand why you survived.”

“Would you have preferred that I had died with Louise Jones and Agents Rolf, Fernandez and Rogers, Senator?” Piper said, sitting back in her chair. “Because I’d like to know what the appropriate action would have been. What decision would you have made?”

“Why not relocate the boy?”

“And risk another attack while we moved Louise and Declan? ‘The boy’ has a name and if you think avoiding it makes you appear more human, you’ve failed, Senator.” The man turned to the rest of the panel before dismissing her. Piper collected her hot chocolate before leaving, mirroring the smirking officer’s smile as he opened the door for her. She joined the others, finding her place next to Spencer, his arm winding around her waist comfortably. “Your turn,” she said to Derek.

“What are my chances in there?” he asked, gauging from Piper’s stance that it hadn’t gone terribly.

“Honestly, no idea. I don’t think he particularly wanted to test me.”

“It helped that you dressed the part,” Derek scoffed, stretching out his palm which Piper slapped.

“You’ll be fine. Good luck!” The team watched the leading man leave, buttoning his grey suit jacket as he entered the courtroom.

* * *

Derek was seated comfortably, resting his hands in his lap as he met the senator’s piercing gaze. “Did you trust Agent Jareau?” Senator Cramer prodded him.

“I did.”

“But don't anymore,” Cramer supplied more than asked.

“I didn't say that.”

“You left her out but involved Penelope Garcia, whom you trust.”

“That is not why,” Derek insisted.

“Isn't it?”

“Her specific skills were very helpful,” Derek explained.

“For your vendetta,” Cramer supplied again.

“For justice.”

“You don't believe in the system,” Cramer inferred.

“Ian Doyle wasn't at the top of anyone's list, Senator,” Derek countered.

“Except yours.”

“Last I checked, I work for the system, sir, and twisting my words doesn’t change the facts.”

“Which are what exactly?” Cramer threatened.

“That no-one was looking for Doyle and I was searching for a lead until an anonymous tip led us straight to Ian Doyle’s hideout,” Derek said calmly. “As for Homeland Security, Doyle wasn’t even on their radar. He hadn’t even left the state so there was no dispute over jurisdiction.” Seemingly satisfied, Cramer dismissed him, calling in Penelope after him. Derek watched her disappear behind the doors as he joined the others waiting outside.

“She’s a big girl, Der,” Piper teased. “She’ll be okay.”

“Yeah, Senator Cramer should be afraid of _her_ ,” Spencer scoffed, easing Derek’s nerves. “She could ruin his career if he’s not careful.”

“Yeah,” Derek said softly, still worried.

* * *

“And that’s when Agent Morgan initiated the assault on Ian Doyle,” Cramer started, glowering at the blonde woman in the seat below.

“What? No, that’s not how it works, sir,” Penelope insisted. “Agent Morgan called Hotch—excuse me, our unit chief.”

“Who was on temporary duty,” Cramer supplied. “I imagine he wasn't easy to find.”

“When the team downsized, he was assigned to lead an investigative taskforce in Pakistan. Agent Morgan called him there and got the assault authorised.”

“Why not wait until your unit chief returned?”

“Because the longer we waited to arrest Doyle, the better chance he had at getting away. This is a man who entered the States despite having an international arrest warrant, the same man who got away from DC to Boston despite there being roadblocks and travel delays. We didn’t have that kind of time.” Cramer dismissed her and Penelope left for the large double doors immediately, joining the others outside, straight into Derek’s arms and Piper stifled a soft smile until the officer recalled Derek to the inquiry. “What—again?” Penelope asked, her voice hitting a higher octave. Derek hugged Pen, pressing a kiss to the top of her hair.

“I’ll be fine,” Derek said, glancing over her head at Piper who nodded subtly, stepping forward to murmur something in Penelope’s ear. Derek disappeared once again behind the double doors while Bishop took Penelope to the small café outside Capitol Hill, knowing the pastries would definitely take her mind off Morgan.

Rossi raised an eyebrow at Hotch who came through the roped barrier, clean-shaven and in a suit. “Jack really didn’t like the beard, did he?”

“He and Bishop threatened to pin me down and shave it off themselves,” Aaron relayed with a small smile. “They’ve called in Derek?”

“Second time,” Spencer supplied.

“Cramer’s off his rocket,” Rossi scoffed. “It’s less of an inquiry and more of an inquisition. He wants the team dismantled.”

“Well, they already tried that after Prentiss, Bishop and JJ left,” Aaron said, slightly conciliatory in tone.

“Except this time, it might actually work,” Spencer said bitterly, staring at the oak doors.

* * *

“Why didn't you let him take the shot, Agent? Because a bullet to Ian Doyle's brain would have ended his life too easily? You wanted him to suffer,” Cramer attacked but Derek maintained his cool.

“He deserved the same beating he gave Prentiss, but I did not unleash that on him, Senator.”

“No, you didn't,” Cramer spat. “Instead, your actions put an innocent child's life on the line.”

“I was under the impression that this was an inquiry, not an interrogation,” Derek said coolly. “And that child’s life was already on the line. He had been taken before our assault on Ian Doyle and the only way to save Declan’s life was to keep Ian Doyle’s. I don’t know how you operate, Senator Cramer, but we don’t just shoot people unless it’s an absolute necessity.”

Derek was tired of this circus show that Cramer was upholding, and he made it clear by the way he slammed the door shut, signalling to Rossi that it was his turn. It was much the same reality with Rossi, pushing buttons and putting words in his mouth, determined to make his account of events the only one despite having no evidence to the contrary. He gratefully accepted the lattes passed around by Piper and Penelope, finding his arm settling easily around Penelope’s waist, instantly finding comfort wash over him until he noticed Piper’s humoured gaze like there was some inside joke that he was missing out on. But then her gaze shifted to Spencer again and the moment passed.

Eventually, the entire team was called in to be addressed. Emily sat in the middle with Hotch and JJ on either side of her. Rossi was next to the unit chief, trying to ignore the doctor next to him who was seated casually like it wasn’t his job on the line, a leg up on his thigh. On the other end, Spencer met Piper’s gaze for a split second, while Senator Cramer droned on about his disappointment. She was leaned back in her chair, legs crossed, her arms casually crossed as she pretended to be interested next to a terrified Penelope who’s only comfort was Derek’s hand pressing on her thigh, listening intently to Senator Cramer’s rebuke. “This team took many unprecedented risks. None were approved. The DIOG has rules, and you chose to ignore every last one. That's blatant disrespect to the Bureau and to authority of law in general. What I find interesting is that you are the experts in behaviour but find nothing wrong with yours,” Senator Cramer finished.

“May I?” Emily volunteered and Cramer allowed her to speak her mind. Emily met Cramer’s gaze head-on, ignoring how Piper’s gaze lowered to her fingernails, how Spencer’s gaze fixated on her and JJ. Instead, she addressed Cramer in the best way she could. “The journey was not traditional, but this team neutralized 4 international criminals and saved the life of a young boy in the process.”

“You started a war with Ian Doyle years ago that this team and the U. S. government had to finish,” Cramer countered, and Piper’s gaze flicked up back to the senator. Cramer spoke as though Emily could’ve predicted any of this, as though it was her fault that Ian Doyle broke out of a North Korean political prison. She wanted to open her mouth to argue, but there was no room left for discussion. “The rest of you are dismissed. Agent Prentiss, we aren’t done yet.”

Reluctantly, the team drained out of the large courtroom, leaving Emily behind to her fate despite every desire to stay behind. Penelope’s gaze was heartbreaking, staring at the oak double doors until security ushered them all out. It wasn’t quite clear what they were all supposed to do. Penelope gravitated towards the baked goods on display in the square, her hand never leaving Derek’s as they walked away from Hotch and Rossi. The two of them shared a look mixed in amusement and sorrow as they convinced a shocked JJ to go back to the field office. Neither Piper nor Spencer wanted to go back to an empty, hollow office. Instead, the duo found a corner bookshop nearby, starting to peruse the shelves, partly to distract themselves from the splitting team.

When Cramer finally dismissed Emily, she was instantly attacked by a series of invasive text messages from JJ and Penelope, updating her on how they were all headed back to the office and that she should meet them there. But she still had radio silence from Piper. Derek and Spencer had shot her a text each, even Hotch and Rossi had sent her a few, asking how the trial went, whether she was okay. But she couldn’t help feeling as though her heart was breaking from the cold shoulder Piper was giving her. Slipping the phone into her purse, she made her familiar path to the metro, trying to ignore the ache in her chest as the afternoon slipped into evening, as she stepped out of the elevator into the hallway, stopping outside the wall of framed pictures. Her gaze fell to meet her picture on the wall. “Never thought we’d be taking one of these down.” She heard a voice come from behind her, the familiar grandfatherly, tender tone of David Rossi. She looked over her shoulder genially as he walked over. “Don’t bother taking it down, it’s screwed in.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Penelope said, her heels clicking on linoleum as she held up a screwdriver. Emily furrowed her brows as to where the tech analyst retrieved it from but didn’t bother asking as Rossi got to work, taking each screw out and Penelope addressed Emily jovially. “I also have Sergio, thanks to Piper’s awesome foresight.”

“Oh, I knew you would,” Emily said, smiling broadly as she hid the deep guilt that gnawed at her heartstrings.

“I need visitation rights,” Penelope demanded as JJ joined them, a mug filled with coffee in her hand, Hotch by her side.

“He’s a love, isn’t he?” Emily chuckled as the blonde woman glanced between them.

“Yeah, he takes after his mom,” Penelope smiled before her eye caught on Derek walking over with Spencer. Spencer smiled at the sight of Rossi fiddling with the screws while Derek glanced at them gravely and began walking away, intending to leave them to their frivolities when Aaron called him, walking so they were out of earshot from the others.

Derek met Aaron’s gaze, his face leached of colour, his pinning gaze absolutely indifferent. “I know what you've been through. I understand that you're angry, but I hope that you understand that this is not about you...or me. This was about saving Emily.” Derek’s mouth barely twitched. That wasn’t an apology. Aaron was perfectly aware of what he had done, and he hadn’t regretted it. Instead, he just told him that the violation of his trust, the manipulation of his feelings didn’t matter but however justified Hotch was, that hurt didn’t go away. The pain of losing Emily, the guilt of letting her fall, then the whiplash he had been handed with Emily’s survival, how was he expected to survive that? More importantly, there was no way of condensing all of that emotion especially by the time Strauss exited the elevators with a simple ‘we need to talk’.

* * *

The ‘team’ gathered around the roundtable. Emily stole glances at Piper who was gripping a chair and leaning on it as she attended to Strauss. “The committee made it clear they will not support a rogue team. Agent Prentiss convinced them you were not that.” JJ glanced at Emily curiously. “They will be watching you closely. So, I suggest you play by their rules.”

“So, we’re okay?” Penelope asked tentatively.

“Suspension has been lifted for everyone,” Strauss said sternly, as though this wasn’t good news.

“Thank you, ma’am,” JJ volunteered for the otherwise silent group. Erin’s gaze fixed next on Emily.

“There may be more paperwork, considering your...situation,” she said delicately to Emily. “But the team is lucky to have you if you're interested.”

“May I think about it?” Emily said gently, feeling all but one person’s gaze on her.

“Of course,” Erin said, passing a glance to Aaron apprehensively.

“I'm in,” Emily said finally, the ice in the room breaking at the smile she played, her gaze shifting to Piper whose knuckles gripped the chair, everyone else smiling easily.

“As for Agent Bishop, you will be fully reinstated,” Erin said unhappily as the young woman looked up. “Even though there is no formal position, it’s been made abundantly clear to me that you are an integral part of the team.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” Piper said quietly.

“I have a stack of cases on my desk,” Erin said, finishing the discussion. “I'm happy to pass them all off to you.”

“I’ll pick them up in the morning,” Hotch told her and Erin grasped her bag, leaving the others to question Emily about what she said.

“Emily, what did you tell them?” Even Piper looked up at Derek’s question.

“The truth,” Emily said, smiling easily as Penelope squeezed her into a hug. Derek shared a smile with Spencer, failing to notice as Piper slipped out. Spencer did and made to follow until Rossi lay a hand on his shoulder and followed the young woman out, finding her outside the bullpen, staring at Emily’s frame.

“You can always count on Erin to interrupt a good moment,” he started, startling Piper. “Though you wouldn’t know, considering you’ve been avoiding Emily all day.”

“I haven’t exactly tried to hide it,” Piper scoffed.

“You want to tell me what’s wrong, kiddo?” Dave stood by her side in silence, fully aware that they were invisible to the rest of the unit in the conference room. She finally broke the quiet.

“I failed her. All these months, I thought I failed her,” she said quietly.

“You didn’t fail her, Bishop. You made her proud. You protected Declan when she couldn’t.” He watched her blink slowly.

“I’m lost, Rossi. All my life, the one thing I could control was myself. My choices, my decisions, my emotions.”

“You can’t control—”

“I know I can’t control emotions,” Piper interrupted him, meeting his fatherly gaze. “But I have always been able to handle them. I don’t know what I’m feeling.” Her voice was shatteringly fragile as though she might break if she raised her voice any higher. “It’s just guilt and sadness and anger and hate and guilt and just…” She sighed. “Did Gideon ever feel like that?”

“What? Like punching a wall?” Rossi snorted. “All the time.” Piper managed a small smile. “You’ll get through it,” he said confidently. “You ready to head back in? I’m sure someone’s come up with a plan for tonight.”

“On Friday night? Good luck,” Piper scoffed. “No, I, uh, I think I’m gonna head home. Would you mind letting Spencer know?” Piper asked reluctantly. She knew how Rossi hated domesticity. “He just, he worries a lot.”

“Bishop, a few days ago, he found you duct-taped in a corner when you when were supposed to be in San Francisco. I think he’s right to be worried.” Piper snickered, a ghost of her past coming to life. “Go, get some rest, kid.” Piper smiled at him, fingers playing with the strap of her cross-body bag as she let the elevator doors close on her, keeping the smile painted on until the doors closed on her.


End file.
